Souls are your econ in Deadlock, which you use to purchase items from the Curiosity Shop and make your character stronger. So every single game, not only do you need to be on top of your econ management with builds and counter items, but you also need to maximize soul farming as much as possible.
If you are new to Deadlock and have just picked up the MOBA that Valve has so beautifully crafted, then you are probably just sticking to the lane in the early game and sharing souls with your lane partner.
While this can be enough to help you win in the early ranks, as you climb through the tiers, you will fall behind lane opponents who look to roam to secure jungle camps rather than just stay in lane.
You will often find this strategy employed in the mid-lane in higher-tier matches where a roaming hero is paired with a carry.
The roaming heroes come with a lot of mobility and do not require that many souls to be impactful in a match. The carry hero, on the other hand, has a lot of late-game scaling but needs to reach their various item spikes as soon as possible.
It is this roaming strategy that we would like to discuss today, and why it’s considered the most efficient economic strategy in Deadlock today.
Understanding Trooper Souls in Deadlock
Troopers are the minions that you farm for souls in the lane. So, to get a grasp of the roaming strategy, you will first need to have a firm understanding of how Troopers work and the amount of souls that they drop throughout the game.
So when a Trooper dies, you will notice that it drops two Orbs, one of which is on the ground that you pick by walking near it, while the other floats up and is automatically collected if no one shoots it. If you shoot the floating orb, you instantly collect the souls it grants, but if the enemy shoots it, then they deny those souls from you, and they secure it for themselves.
The Orb on the ground is worth 60% of the total soul that a trooper drops, while the one that floats is worth the remainder 40% of the trooper’s bounty. So if an enemy is shooting it down, you are losing out on 40% of the souls per trooper.
Now, the total soul bounty of a trooper increases the longer a game goes. It is calculated as:
- 116 + 1.16 per minute
But as a wave has a total of four troopers, you can calculate the total wave bounty with:
- 464 + 4.64 per minute
So a tropper’s worth goes up significantly the longer a game goes.
However, if other heroes are near a dying trooper, then the amount of souls that you ultimately get is split between all the players.
This is called Soul Sharing, and Deadlock has a specific soul distribution table as seen below:
| Number of Nearby Players | Distribution Percentage |
|---|---|
| 1 | 100% |
| 2 | 54% |
| 3 | 36% |
| 4 | 25% |
| 5 | 20% |
| 6 | 16% |
Hence, during the laning phase, you and your lane partner receive 108% of the wave’s bounty. Generating 8% more souls per wave.
While this might seem significant at first glance, this is not the case, especially during the laning phase.
How to Roam in Deadlock
Now that you are familiar with Soul Sharing. It’s time to talk about Roaming, and why it’s currently the most efficient economic strategy.
Around the map in Deadlock, you have a lot of breakables, around the map including boxes that provide souls and golden statues that provide a random permanent buff that you get to keep for the rest of the game.
Just like the troopers, the boxes you break also have a souls distribution formula:
- 23+ (2*in-game time in minutes)
So if you are 4 mins into the game, then the amount of souls that a box will drop is 31.
However, do keep in mind that not all boxes on the map contain souls. The drop rate for this is about 60%, so the expected value per box at around 4 mins is around 18 souls.
Now there are a lot of boxes around the map in Deadlock, so if you are playing a roaming hero, you will just need to go around breaking boxes for some time to reduce the parity that you will have with the carry hero that you left behind in lane.
But, do keep in mind that this is only taking boxes into consideration. On top of those, you have your neutral camps, Sinner’s Sacrifice, and even ganking other lanes.
There are many ways of maximizing your soul farm in Deadlock as both a carry and a roamer. And it just takes a bit of practice to finally be able to optimize your runs every game.
Maximizing Soul Farming with Roams in Deadlock
To be able to maximize Soul Farming through Roams, you will first have to understand character roles, in the sense; which heroes are carriers and which of them are roamers.
Carries are characters who scale incredibly well into the late-game but need a lot of resources (as in souls) to reach certain powerspikes and item breakpoints. These include picks like Haze, Mirage, Lady Geist, and Venator.
Roamers, on the other hand, have good mobility and do not need that much souls investment from the get-go to be relevant in the early-to-mid game. These include picks like Bebop, Silver, Pocket, and Paradox.
Now the carries will be staying in lane to soak up every bit of Trooper souls, while the Roamer will choose to go for breaking boxes, securing camps, or even gank other lanes to put pressure on the map.
But, as a roamer, do keep in mind that the total amount of time for which you are away will depend on the matchup. If you feel like your carry partner is doing well in lane and doesn’t need much help, then you can look to roam for an extended period.
However, if your carry is struggling, let’s say that a Geist is playing into a Bebop, then you might have to cut your roam short and support your lane duo to push in the wave and prevent them from getting picked.
So, what is the best roam timing?
You will want to roam right after clearing the wave. Push your troopers into the enemy Guardian, do your loop, and then come back when the wave is about to bounce back, and the enemy troopers hit your own Guardian.
You can roam for longer if your carry is able to manage the crash; however, if they are getting pressured, then you will want to come back early or stay longer and assist them.
Now, rinse and repeat the process till you finally reach the mid-game, where you will now need to play for mid-boss, and other objectives like the Walkers.
Positives of Roaming
Here are some of the reasons why you need to learn to start roaming in all of your matches as soon as possible:
- Your carry gets more souls per wave. Instead of settling for a 54%-54% split, they get 100% of the souls that the troopers drop throughout the whole of their laning phase, allowing them to reach their spikes faster.
- Your team will also have more total souls as you are utilizing the time to farm them by breaking boxes, doing neutral camps, and getting Sinner’s Sacrifice.
- As a roamer, you will also create a lot of map pressure. When the enemy does not see you in lane, they might think that you are going for a gank in the other lanes, forcing others to play more safely. If you see that the enemy is still pushing up, you can gank the lane, getting your team an early advantage.
Negatives of Roaming
Roaming does have some issues to it that you might want to keep in mind:
- When you go for a roam, your carry becomes very vulnerable in lane. If they are not adept at 2v1 situations, then you will not get much room to roam. Moreover, roaming is also match-up favored; if the enemy team has a lot of CC and dive potential, then your carry is going to struggle when the lane gets pushed in.
- Roaming also needs good lane coordination and communication. Communication is one of the biggest issues in Deadlock, and when you roam, you will need to be constantly aware of how well your carry is being able to manage solo. You do not get to AFK farm boxes and abandon your lane, as roaming is a coordinated strategy.
- As a roamer, you will be poorer in comparison to your carry. No matter how many boxes you farm, you will be behind on a certain number of souls. So if you are choosing to roam, make sure you are playing a hero who can play from behind and stay relevant even when you are not quickly hitting your spikes.
